Boca Raton businesses make 'top 50' ranking of women-owned firms

Two women who are business owners in Boca Raton have never met, but would likely have a lot to talk about over lunch.

Terry Lehmann and Barbara Levine both founded successful businesses that were named in May to a "Top 50" list of flourishing women-owned businesses in the nation. Both are mothers who began their businesses as a way to balance their desire to work with a family. And both are 52 years old and had previous careers.

Lehmann worked for three decades in information technology before founding True Green Enterprises, a treeless paper company, in 2007. The company makes napkins, facial tissue and bathroom tissue from sugar cane husks and bamboo grass. True Green's revenue has quadrupled, growing from $1.7 million to $7.8 million in 2012.

Her business ranks No. 20 on the list, compiled by the Women Presidents' Organization and American Express Open, the small-business division of American Express.

Levine, a lawyer by trade, is chief executive of Exam Coordinators Network, a $15 million provider of independent medical evaluations for insurers and other clients. Her company, which ranks No. 38 on the list, expanded nationwide and added new types of clients.

Making a difference

Lehmann enjoyed her work in IT, first at Ames Research Center in California for NASA and then for the lending division of a financial institution.

Then, at age 40, she found herself pregnant with her second child and decided to take a break from work and enjoy her son, now 12. Lehmann also has three grandchildren from her daughter.

Lehmann "semi-retired" at 43, but soon got the itch to innovate. She became interested in buying healthier products for her family. That led her to research making treeless paper products from bamboo and sugar cane, both environmentally sustainable resources.

In 2007, Lehmann began working with Chinese factories to make products that were price-competitive with major-brand tissue and toilet paper but also offered a quality product that used no trees.

"I wanted to give back and be good to the Earth," she said. "I was looking to make a difference."

Lehmann said she spent time finding the best factories in Guangdong that would meet her retailers' standards for quality and production. True Green Enterprises has since earned a BRC certification, a global standard for quality, safety and operation established by the British Retail Consortium.

With manufacturing overseas, True Green operates with only five employees in Boca Raton and two in Hong Kong. The products are sold by an outside sales staff that specializes in retail.

The company makes both its own Green2 brand and a private label for major grocers and retailers. Lehmann said her primary competition comes from recycled products.

Building the business from the ground up "has been a struggle, but I kept persevering," she said.

For Lehmann, the only downside is the travel: she makes the 16-hour flight to China every other month.

"You have to really love what you do," she said.

Reducing insurance costs

Levine was a lawyer for a major insurer and had three young children. "I was burning the candle at both ends," she said.

Balancing work with family led her to the decision to start her own business in 1999 with her husband, Steve Levine, formerly a lawyer for ADT and Tyco, and his golf buddy Rick Stopek, then a chiropractor.

"We wanted to bring professionalism to it," said Levine, who said she often saw quality issues with medical reviews.

The company's service may be used, for example, to determine how badly someone was hurt in an auto accident, whether someone is disabled and deserves benefits, or whether there's a legitimate worker compensation claim.

Levine said ECN ultimately helps consumers, because fraudulent claims drive up the cost of insurance for everyone.

When the Florida Legislature threw out its no-fault motor vehicle insurance law in 2004, the company faced a challenging time: most of its business was a result of Florida's PIP law. Then the personal-injury-protection law was reinstated later that same year.

But being at the whim of legislative action made Levine and her partners rethink their business model.

"That's what forced us to grow. We made the decision to expand nationally," Levine said. Now, Florida's PIP is less than 20 percent of the business.

The company, which employs 63 in Boca Raton, now expects business to boom with changes under the federal Affordable Care Act, which provides for appeal on health insurance claims. With health plans now required to have "independent review organizations" review their decisions, a new market opens for ECN.

Levine said she has learned from starting her own business that women who have ideas for businesses should not be afraid to act on them.

Women often "feel every detail needs to be planned out before they can do anything. This ends up being their biggest obstacle. If you have a skill and a passion, put it out there," she said. "Believe in yourself."